CNN —
Seven Republican presidential candidates participated in a debate Wednesday night in California, while the front-runner in the party primary, former President Donald Trump, skipped the debate and instead gave a speech in Michigan amid a strike by autoworkers.
CNN is fact-checking both events. This article will be updated as additional fact checks are completed.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that Trump “said he was going to build a wall across the whole border” but actually “built 52 miles of wall.” Later in the debate, former Vice President Mike Pence used a much different figure, saying that “we built hundreds of miles of border wall.”
Facts First: This needs context. Both candidates’ claims are defensible; Christie, though, didn’t explain that he was talking only about barriers that were erected in spots on the southern border where there had not been any barriers before. If you count all of the barriers built on the southern border under Trump, as Trump and Pence do, then the total is much higher – more than 450 miles.
Here are the facts.
When Christie says only 52 miles of wall were built under Trump, he is referring solely to one category of wall construction – “primary” wall that was built in parts of the border where no barriers previously existed.
When Pence puts the figure in the “hundreds of miles,” he is referring to all wall construction during the Trump-Pence administration. The total number is 458...
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